Pepper Steak

A great meal you can make with items from food storage.

I put in the crockpot:

1 qt of canned beef
1 chopped onion

I mixed:

1/4 C soy sauce
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ginger
salt and pepper

Add to the crockpot.

I cooked it on high for about 3 hours.

I had tomatoes and green peppers from my garden, so I them up and added them to the pot and turned it on low.

After the veggies started getting soft I took 1/2 C water and added 1TB brown gravy mix (as a thickener, you could also use cornstarch).

Stir and warm. Eat over rice.

I cooked this before I left for class. When I came home it was all gone.

Always a good sign.

Except the boys tell me dad didn't make enough rice......

Green Chili Taco Salad

First, I grabbed a few items out of storage. Next winter I will be sure to can more because I do not feel like canning in this southern heat.

(I will apologize up front for the washed out pictures - I don't know what has been up with my camera lately.....I know it can't be me!)
Green Chili:

seasoned beef (we just season with garlic, salt and pepper)
a can of tomatoes with green chilis
chopped onion
brown gravy seasoning sprinkled on if needed to thicken

Black Beans
a can of black beans
garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/2 small can of tomato juice
cilantro (which makes the world go round)

Spanish Rice (this was made for another party and left over)
2 c rice, browned over medium heat with garlic and onion in olive oil
4 C chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 TB cumin
dash of oregano

Put the browned rice in the broth (which has been mixed with the remaining ingredients and cook as you usually cook rice


Then Logan made some shells:

Then the cheese:

The rice and beans:

The beef:

The lettuce and sour cream:Yum!

Family Canning

What good luck I have had! The day after I complained in my post about not having a canner - the canner arrived!Friday was busily spent canning oats, wheat, and pasta. Everyone got involved, even a friend who had stayed the night.Dad and the older boys were gone most of Saturday on a church trip, but Ethan and I managed to get 85 cans of dry milk filled (for those of you that have dry pack canned, you know how messy the dry milk is!). After cleaning up the sticky floor and chairs, we waited for the guys to get home to do any more, we were beat!Forget diamonds and rubies - a fully stocked pantry is this girl's best friend.I wasn't totally prepared! We ran out of tape to put the boxes together to hold these cans, sigh.....my living room has become a fort of silver cans.

Versatility

This meal is a gem, I got it from my sister. You can make it into a freezer meal (i.e. make several at one time and freeze - then you have them to take to a sick neighbor, you can cook them on a hectic night - like Church night - or what have you.)

It is also a throw together meal on those crazy busy nights when you are in a hurry, need to feed a crowd, and you don't want a mess.

Plus, I call it a pantry food - not strictly worse case scenario food, but a meal that you probably have the ingredients to in your pantry.

I freeze my cheese in two cup baggies and when stuffing goes on sale I stock up.

Swiss Chicken Casserole

Chicken (I use two pints of my canned chicken)
2 cups stuffing (this is about half a box)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 c milk
1/2 c melted butter
Cheese (the recipe calls for 6 swiss slices, but I usually don't have swiss. I mostly substitute mozarella, which I keep in my freezer)

Layer chicken in bottom of casserole dish (or if you want, a crockpot)
put chicken on top
Mix soup and milk, pour on top
sprinkle stuffing over top
pour butter over stuffing
Bake at 375 until brown and bubbly.

My kids gobble it up!

Dinner off the Shelf

Another food storage recipe from a lady in Arizona that promotes storing food like Joseph in Egypt :-) Her exact system doesn't work for me, but I did start writing out the recipes I use a lot of to see how much I would have to have to make it repeatedly. It was very illuminating.

Anyway.....

Beef Stroganoff

1 qt of canned beef
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 packet Lipton onion soup mix
2 C beef broth
onion, chopped (optional)
sour cream (~ 1 C or however much you have in your frig)
Rice or noodles

I put all but the last two ingredients in the crockpot and heat thru. Add sour cream right before serving over rice or noodles.

BTW: I am canning chicken on Saturday (it's on sale this week!) - come on over if you want!

A "Food Storage" Dinner Idea

For the crockpot:

Chicken Chowder

1 can cream chicken
1 can cream celery (or cream of potato)
1 pint canned chicken
1 can green chilis
1 can corn
chopped bell peppers, any color, if you have them (or dehydrated, if you have them)
seasoning - salt, pepper, thyme
1 C chicken broth.

Cook in crockpot on low until hot, I just left mine there all day, about 1/2 before eating it put in 1 C milk.

We ate ours with fresh homemade bread, but Phil thought it would be good over rice as well.

A Cautionary Tale.....on Food Storage

Don't try this at your home.....

Today, while making granola, I thought it would be wonderful to open a can of dehydrated peaches that I have had for a while and add them to the mix with my craisins. I debated - you hate to open something when you may need it later - but I am determined to rotate my food storage. So I grabbed the can from my neatly organized shelves - a can I have had on those very same shelves for 6-7 years.


I pried off the white cover only to discover that I must of opened them in the past - way past, to be precise. They looked awful! I don't remember opening them, but I must have and then forgot about it. Never, never, never, ever will I do that again. I'm glad we weren't starving and depending on those measly peach dices to save us - yuck!